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Moving towards sustainability: how do natural resources, financial development, and economic growth interact with the ecological footprint in Malaysia? A dynamic ARDL approach

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Abstract

Without enhancing the quality of the environment, the goals of sustainable development remain unachievable. In order to minimize the damage to the planet, sustainable practices need to be considered. This study is conducted to identify some of the drivers behind the increasing sustainability issues and tried to investigate the impact of natural resources, financial development, and economic growth on the ecological footprint in Malaysia from the year 1980–2019 by utilizing the dynamic simulated autoregressive distribution lag approach. It was identified that financial development, economic growth, and natural resources are the determinants behind the upsurge of the ecological footprint as all three show a positive and significant effect on ecological footprint. However, in the long run, the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis was also validated in Malaysia. Therefore, it is recommended to increase awareness among the public regarding the adoption of sustainable practices in everyday life and to use green technologies that offer maximum efficiency and minimum damage to the environment in commercial and domestic activities. Finally, based on the research results, a comprehensive policy framework was proposed which could allow the Malaysian economy to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 8, and 13.

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Data availability

The data of this manuscript were collected from different websites, i.e., World Development Indicator and GFN.

Change history

  • 23 June 2021

    Update on correct City for affiliation 2

Notes

  1. https://home.kpmg/my/en/home/insights/2020/02/sustainable-development.html

  2. https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/living/2017/12/13/living-within-our-planets-capacity

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Studies, Bahria Business School, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Kamran Khan

  2. Business Studies Department, Bahria Business School, Bahria University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Farwa Abbas

  3. Dar-ul-Madina International University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Danish Iqbal Godil

  4. Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia

    Arshian Sharif

  5. Department of Business Administration, ILMA Univeristy, Karachi, Pakistan

    Arshian Sharif

  6. Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Zafar Ahmed

  7. School of Public Administration, **’an University of Architecture and Technology, **’an, China

    Muhammad Khalid Anser

Authors
  1. Muhammad Kamran Khan
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  2. Farwa Abbas
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  3. Danish Iqbal Godil
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  4. Arshian Sharif
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  5. Zafar Ahmed
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  6. Muhammad Khalid Anser
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Contributions

Muhammad Kamran Khan: Formal analysis

Farwa Abbas: Original draft

Danish Iqbal Godil: Conceptualization, writing—original draft

Arshian Sharif: Supervision

Zafar Ahmed: Supervision

Muhammad Khalid Anser: Review

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Correspondence to Danish Iqbal Godil.

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Khan, M.K., Abbas, F., Godil, D.I. et al. Moving towards sustainability: how do natural resources, financial development, and economic growth interact with the ecological footprint in Malaysia? A dynamic ARDL approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 55579–55591 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14686-9

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